Screen addiction is one of the most unspoken and uncomfortable yet prevalent issues faced by our society today. There is a reason people in my 10 to 25 age cohort (Generation Z ) is nicknamed iGen; we use our phones for everything.

In Catherine Price’s book, “How to Break Up with Your Phone: The 30-Day Plan to Take Back Your Life,” I was given an unsettling wake-up call to how destructive our phones truly are. I strongly recommend this book be read by everyone, in particular those of us who grew up online. I would go as far as to say this book should be implemented as mandatory reading in high school curriculums.  

Health and science journalist Catherine Price begins by explaining the implications and visual representations of screen addiction and how abnormal our societal obsession has drastically increased over time. The first half of the book provides statistics and real life experiences to understand the meaning of screen addiction. In the second half, Price relays her game plan that she used to “break up with her phone” to become less reliant and addicted on her phone without cutting it out of her life completely. 

The word “addiction” is unnerving and admitting addiction is far from easy. However, throughout her book, Price reminds readers that screen addiction is still a form of problematic and disturbing behavior that needs to be addressed. Just because “everyone” is reliant on their phones, doesn’t mean it’s healthy; in fact it’s the opposite. Ever since reading this book, an excerpt that lives in my head rent free is, “the next time you’re in public, take a second to notice how many of the people around you – including children – are staring at their phones. Then imagine that instead of looking at their smartphones, those same people were shooting up. Would the fact that half the people around you were doing so make it seem normal or okay?” 

As a collective generation, we see the smart phone as a convenient tool when in reality it is controlling us. As noted in the book, smartphones have proven to be detrimental to mental and physical health as well as disruptive to personal relationships. Smartphones have negatively altered social norms in ways that previous generations would never expect. For example, instead of picking up the phone and calling someone, it is customary now to send a preemptive text message first to see if it is okay to call. 

Let’s also address the increase in instant gratification smartphones promise. Take a minute and think about the character Veruca Salt, from the book “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.” She is notorious for her spoiled personality and famous line, “I want it now.” That is how we sound as a society when it comes to our screens addictions as a result of portable smartphones. There is a wave of anxiety and stress when the WiFi is down, or someone runs out of data or even, heaven forbid, the smartphone battery runs low. This is not normal nor is it healthy.

As the up-and-coming generation with screens everywhere we go, one of the major resolutions is to acknowledge the fact that we are addicted to the screens. Reading Catherine Price’s book is a valuable resource to realizing how dire this issue is to not only our bodies’ physical but mental well-being. Price’s initiative to decrease the dependency on screens is brilliant and eye opening.

— Special to the Press Herald

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